This article considers the role of migrant women in light of the contribution to the demographic, social, and economic development of the receiving country. The high level of development for these areas has always been fostered by the ready availability of a salaried work force and its easy replacement. The cost of labor in the country of origin is different from that in the receiving country and thus often results in a parallel work force and fosters forms of discrimination. With the crisis of the "rotation" model in the 1970s, the cost of replacing the work force has been concentrated in the countries of origin while official politics, which limited the immigration of family members, placed a greater burden on the women and the children of the emigrants, and increased the danger of their gradual marginalization.

Political and institutional boundaries (empire, nation and academic disciplines), and boundaries to communication (language and script) enclose empirical knowledge. A series of investigations, all relevant to the Middle East and the Mediterranean, are presented here. They lay the ground for a detailed discussion of how scope conditions, previous research and misreading can explain Ernest Gellner’s use of the concept of ‘asabiyya, forged by the XIVth century scholar Ibn Khaldûn’s, and the transfer of it from its general context to his own modelling of a particular, Muslim, society – a move totally foreign to Ibn Khaldûn’s own intentions and thinking. Paradoxically the boundaries of knowledge can serve their very transgression, but when including knowledge from across the border it has to be done on its own terms. Ibn Khaldûn’s work, from a time before modern nations and academic disciplines, can serve as an example and an inspiration.

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Brandell, Inga

Södertörn University College, School of Social Sciences, Political science.

What is the relationship between borders and knowledge? How do changes in territorial and social borders affect knowledge's epistemic boundaries; how do changed knowledge boundaries affect physical borders? Which is more resilient; which seems to change most easily? These are the questions addressed by the fourteen chapters in this volume.

The volume uses case studies, based on both historical and contemporary sources, to highlight processes of knowledge production within the social sciences and humanities. The focus is on Middle Eastern societies and peoples - Circassian, Assyrian, Turkish, Arab, Kurdis... – living around or having moved from the Mediterranean. One central subject is the influence of migration and travel on the relationship between the geographic and linguistic borders established by nation-builders, and those constructed by scholars, travellers and commentators. A second is the transfer and translation of textual elements of knowledge – e.g. cultural repertoires or historical narratives – from one linguistic social setting to another. Together with an introductory discussion of the book's three border-knowledge themes, the studies present new theoretical and methodological conceptualisations of the intriguing and manifold relationship between physical, social borders, and the boundaries of knowledge.